1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a management and operation system for appliances connected to a network. More specifically, the present invention relates to a management and operation system which enables various functions which were not originally included in the appliances to be automatically generated from a distance according to a user's desire to use various appliances connected to a communication network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The present invention is the system and method proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-359720 titled “Central management system and method of network connecting means” filed on Dec. 11, 2002, (hereinafter simply called “a previous application”) by an applicant of this patent application with improvement and new features added. Thus, the invention of the previous application will be outlined before describing the present invention.
A widely used router of these days is an apparatus for interconnecting networks and routing a packet that passes through the networks. When the router is used, for example, to connect a LAN with the Internet, both the Ethernet (registered trademark) at the LAN side and a telephone line or a dedicated line at the Internet side ere connected to terminals provided on the router. However, connecting a cable to an appropriate terminal and turning power on is not enough to operate the router; which requires a setup (configuration). That is to say, the router requires an initial configuration appropriate for each connection mode, requires modifications in the configuration after the operation starts, and must be operated with operation conditions being monitored. For that purpose, each individual router requires a specific work taking its environment into account, and that has been costly and time consuming. Specifically, to configure or maintain a router, it is a common practice, among others, for a communications engineer to login using Telnet and send a necessary configuration file to achieve the configuration. In such a conventional practice, however, an engineer with an expertise has to operate on each of a plurality of objective routers, which requires much effort.
As a solution for the abovementioned problem, the applicant of the present application has proposed a system and method for centrally managing a large number of routers in the manner below in the abovementioned Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-359720. According to the previous application, each of a plurality of routers to be managed by a router central management system has a function of connecting to an external network such as a LAS and the Internet and performs routing of data sent from the network to the LAN and the LAN to the network. Here, the LAN is a local network for connecting a large number of network terminals inside a corporation or a public body, for example.
For the router central management system, two types or servers with different functions such as an initial server and a user server are provided. In this configuration, consider a case where a router is to be newly used as an apparatus to connect the LAN with the network. At the factory shipment, only connection data for the initial server is written on the storage device (not shown) in the router as well as general data relating to security such as encryption or two-way authentication. To each router, an identifier (ID) for enabling unique identification such as a serial number is previously allocated. An initial database connected to the initial server has identifier data for all the routers used in the router central management system stored thereon. With such a configuration, two-way authentication or the like are performed by using, for example, encryption by SSL or SSH and an appropriate digital signature in communications between the routers and the initial server.
The router to be used is originally set to automatically access the initial server when an appropriate cable is connected to a terminal and power is turned on. When the initial server receives access from the router, it checks that it is not unauthorized access, and recognizes the accessing router by using its identifier. The server then acquires connection data (for example, URL) to a user server responsible for the management from, the initial database, and returns it to the router. The initial server serves as an operation guiding agency, so to say, for the accessing router.
When the router receives the connection data of the corresponding user server from the initial server, it accesses the user server in turn. In response to the access from the router, the user server identifies the router by using its identifier acquires configuration data necessary for the router to actually operate as a router from the user database, and sends it to the server. When the router receives configuration data from a user server, initial configuration is automatically done and an operation starts. With such an initial configuration procedure, all the initial configuration conventionally performed by directly login to the router becomes unnecessary. All the initial configuration of the router automatically completes only by simply connecting a cable thereto and turning on power.
As such, in the router central management system proposed in the previous application, a problem in a conventional art in that individual configuration is required for each router is eliminated and a large number of routers can be much more efficiently managed easily than the conventional art. Further, the route becomes operable without regard of the kind of a connecting communication line. Also, in the central management system of the router, management involving automatic environmental configuration (auto configuration), updating or configuring change of firmware, and monitoring the operation can be centrally performed for all the routers whether or not it is an Internet line or a WAN line.
In the abovementioned example, as means for connecting a plurality of networks, a router which performs routing by connecting the LAN in a corporation with a large number of geographically dispersed business locations; and the Internet or a WAN is assumed as a typical example. An object or central management by the invention disclosed in the previous application is not necessarily limited to a router as a routing apparatus. Any hardware, firmware, software or a combination of them can be centrally managed if only it is connected to a network and can be changed in configuration. For example, as an example totally different from a router, a personal computer such as a Windows (registered trademark) terminal or a Macintosh (registered trademark) terminal connected to a network, or a workstation such as a UNIX (registered trademark) terminal can be called as network connecting means in a sense that they function as a network terminal and requires some configuration, though, they are the same in that they cart be automatically set if only using a system proposed in the previous application.